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The lawsuit claimed Meta secretly captured the personal data of millions of Texans by using facial recognition software for more than a decade.
Meta has agreed to pay a settlement of $1.4bn to resolve a lawsuit accusing the tech giant of illegally using facial recognition technology to collect biometric data.
This lawsuit began in 2022 when Texas attorney general Ken Paxton sued Meta for allegedly breaching the US state’s laws around biometric data and deceptive trade practices. The Texas plaintiffs say the settlement is the largest obtained from an action brought by a single state – and the largest privacy settlement obtained by an attorney general.
The complaint related to a feature Meta rolled out in 2011 called Tag Suggestions, which was designed to let Facebook users tag photographs with the names of people more easily. The lawsuit says this feature was automatically turned on for Texas citizens without explanation.
The lawsuit said this feature led to the biometric data of Texas citizens being collected by Meta “for more than a decade” through the use of facial recognition software. Meta did this despite knowing that Texas law forbids companies from capturing biometric identifiers of citizens without their consent, the complaint read.
In November 2021, Meta announced that it would delete the facial recognition data of more than 1bn Facebook users the company collected over a decade.
“After vigorously pursuing justice for our citizens whose privacy rights were violated by Meta’s use of facial recognition software, I’m proud to announce that we have reached the largest settlement ever obtained from an action brought by a single state,” Paxton said.
“This historic settlement demonstrates our commitment to standing up to the world’s biggest technology companies and holding them accountable for breaking the law and violating Texans’ privacy rights. Any abuse of Texans’ sensitive data will be met with the full force of the law.”
As part of the settlement, Meta will pay $1.4bn over a period of five years. A spokesperson told Reuters that the company is pleased to resolve the matter and that it looks forward to exploring future opportunities to “deepen our business investments in Texas”. The company also denied any wrongdoing.
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